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Tehran Bans Paykan Taxis From Dec. 22

Iran's former national car, Paykan—produced for over 40 years, is finally seeing the end of its life as taxis on the roads of the Iranian capital.

The announcement of the upcoming ban was made by Tehran Municipality, which is responsible for road conditions.

Following an enactment by Transportation and Traffic Organization of Tehran Municipality, all Paykan taxis are prohibited from commuting in the Traffic Zone starting 22 Dec. 2015, said Meysam Mozaffar, the head of Taxi Driving Organization, IRNA reported this week.

"Of the 17,000 dilapidated taxis in Tehran's taxi fleet, 6,400 are Paykan taxis that must be phased out in the coming months. The new bylaw aims to reduce pollution in the central business district," he said.

The first Paykan, which means "arrow" in Persian, was first manufactured in Iran in 1967, a year after the Hillman Hunter appeared in Britain. It became an exclusively Iranian model after Chrysler UK discontinued it and sold the rights to Peugeot.

Production of Paykan was discontinued in 2005 after the Iranian government at the time offered IKCO cash incentives to stop manufacturing the vehicle.

In the last five years, over 400,000 Iranian cars have been converted to natural gas or hybrid engines, according to the Iranian Fuel Conservation Organization.

Tehran authorities began requiring pollution-reducing catalytic converters on new cars when driving in the central business district. In addition, Tehran Metro expansion and the demarcation of traffic zone area have also contributed to lower levels of pollution.